


Thirty Six Questions

by GingerItt



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-15
Updated: 2015-01-15
Packaged: 2018-03-07 18:03:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3178035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GingerItt/pseuds/GingerItt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt and Blaine meet in a psychology class and decide to recreate one of the studies they learn about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thirty Six Questions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lurkdusoleil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lurkdusoleil/gifts).



“Do you think it really works?”

Kurt looks up from phone (just a quick text to Rachel to let her know that he won’t be home for a few hours so she should go ahead and eat without him) and blinks dumbly.

“Do I think what really works?” he asks. 

Blaine smiles and leans forward, hands folded neatly on the table. “Aron’s study. Where the test subjects fell in love.”

Kurt considers the question for a moment. “I mean, they got married. It’s hard to argue with that. The real question is ‘Did they stay married?’”

“That is an excellent point,” Blaine replies as their server places a pitcher of beer and two frosted glasses in front of them. “Still, I think it’s interesting.”

“Oh, no doubt about that,” Kurt agrees. He lifts the pitcher and pours a beer first for Blaine, and then himself. “But… manufactured love—”

“It’s not manufactured.”

“It is so manufactured. It’s tricking the brain into feeling something it might not have felt on its own. It’s forcing intimacy between two strangers.”

“Or it is streamlining the process. Kind of a jumpstart to a relationship. That’s why he had the subjects look into one anothers’ eyes at the end of it.” Blaine picked up his glass and took a long drink from it.

Kurt caught himself studying the movement of Blaine’s throat as he swallowed his beer. Blaine, or ‘Bowtie McHottiepants’ as he had come to call him in his mind, was in his Psych lecture. For the last two months, two days a week for three hours, Kurt studied him for a distance in a lecture hall that was filled with two hundred and ninety eight other co-eds. He always sat near the front on the right side, decked out in perfectly fitting pants and brightly colored bowties and poles that on anyone else would have made them look like a clown. On Blaine they looked quirky and only added to his general wholesomeness. 

‘Bless Dr. Wates,’ Kurt thought as Blaine topped off his beer. Their professor assigned them all a study partner for the upcoming final and Kurt, by some sort of luck, was over the moon to discover that music education major Blaine Anderson was also Bowtie McHottiepants when he introduced himself after their lecture yesterday. 

Which was how they wound up here, in a little bar not too far from campus drinking cheap beer. Kurt couldn’t bring himself to mind.

“That’s the part that makes me nervous,” Kurt said. “My acting teacher said that when two people are that close for more than ten seconds they’re either going to fight or fuck.”

Blaine chuckled. “Well, one of those options doesn’t sound too bad.”

Was he flirting? Kurt wasn’t sure so he nervously took a sip of his beer.

“What if…” Blaine began, his words trailing off.

“What?”

“What if we did the questions?” 

Kurt’s jaw dropped. It wasn’t that he believed wholeheartedly in Aron’s study, it just that the outcome seemed a bit too perfect. “What?”

“We could do the questions. Think of it as a scientific version of Twenty Questions, only there’s thirty-six.” Blaine took his phone from his pocket and began tapping away. “The questions are online. It wouldn’t take too long, I don’t think.”

“What about the four minutes?” Kurt asked. He fidgeted in his seat on his side of the booth as Blaine triumphantly should him his phone, the questions shining brightly on the screen.

“When we finish the questions, we can decide if we want to do that or not. Let’s see what happens.”

“Let’s see what happens.”

Half way through the second set of questions, Kurt’s casual aesthetic crush on his unnamed classmate was replaced by a very real one on Blaine. So far they’d discovered that they were both from Ohio, both had been in their school glee clubs and even had competed against one another. It was their differences that really drew him in, though. Blaine was an optimist, that much was clear. There was so much hope and earnestness in his responses that Kurt had to smile with him, even when he thought he was a bit too positive. But it was as Blaine described his worst memory, being attacked by a group of guys when he was only fourteen for daring to take a boy to a dance, that Kurt realized how Blaine’s optimism wasn’t cheesy or false. It was real and he had to respect that he had been able to keep it after his teen years.

“And you? What’s your most terrible memory?” Blaine asked.

Kurt considered this for a moment. “Probably my dad’s heart attack when I was a junior. He was in a coma for almost a week and I didn’t know if he would ever wake up and if he did, what kind of parent I’d have.” He took a deep breath and poured the remains of their pitcher into his glass. “It was just the two of us for a long time, you know? And suddenly, I had to deal with the idea that it might just be me. And I was a lonely kid, like really lonely, but I always had a dad that loved and supported me and gave me my space. Maybe too much space. I was terrified of losing him. I still am. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year and even though he’s in remission, I still worry that it could come back and then where would I be?”

Blaine nodded solemnly. “I’m sorry, Kurt.”

“Thank you.” He picked up his beer and finished his glass. There was a long moment of silence but it wasn’t awkward or forced. Kurt could feel that they were both taking a moment for themselves. “Another pitcher?”

“Absolutely,” Blaine grinned.

“So… shall we go somewhere and look into each other’s eyes for four uncomfortable minutes?” Blaine joked as he looked his scarf around his neck. The thirty-six questions had taken them four hours to get through, not because they got distracted but because each question gave birth to a new conversation and new revelations about the other person. It was easy to talk to Blaine and Kurt wondered if it was because of the questions or because it was Blaine asking them.

Kurt shivered, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I’d like that very much,” he said, a shy smile playing on his lips.

They walked together in silence as a dusting of snow fell around them. Every now and then their shoulders bumped against the other’s and Kurt was sure that it wasn’t just the cold that was causing a blush on his cheeks. It was relatively quiet out due to the cold and snow, few cars passed them by as they made their way to an unknown destination. 

Finally, they came to a stop in the center of a small park. Christmas lights had already been strung up, illuminating the statue in its center and providing more than enough light to see one another clearly. Kurt turned to face Blaine and took a deep breath as Blaine fiddled with the timer on his phone.

“Are you ready?” Blaine asked, his finger hovering over start button. 

Kurt nodded, suddenly thinking this was a terrible idea. It was late, he was exhausted and emotionally wrung out, not to mention he was sure his eyes were red and puffy from the cold. But then Blaine gave him a sweet smile and he didn’t care.

“On three?”

“On three.”

Together, the counted down and on three, Blaine tapped the button on his phone and his eyes met Kurt’s.

It was strange and, as Blaine had said as they left the bar, uncomfortable. As he looked at him, he became very aware of how close they were to one another. Kurt didn’t remember being that close to him before. But as he stared into Blaine’s eyes and he picked out the traces of green and copper that swirled with the warm brown, he felt something tighten in his gut.

‘This could be it,’ Kurt thought as he studied how Blaine’s eyes dilated in spite of the low light. ‘This could be someone.’

He wasn’t sure at what point he noticed it, but it was as he was realizing the vulnerability and the trust Blaine was showing him that he became struck with the knowledge that he was doing the same thing. Something within him told him to run but his feet stayed firmly planted on the snowy ground and he continued to look into Blaine’s eyes. Blaine’s eyes that gave hints to the beautiful soul that resided inside that adorable body.

All too soon, Blaine’s phone chimed, alerting them to the end of the four minutes.

“I wasn’t ready for that to end,” he admitted as he stepped back, desperate for air with his hands on his knees. Had he remembered to breathe during those long minutes? He looked up and saw Blaine watching him, a look a panic on his face. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Nothing—I—I don’t—I wasn’t—I could have done that for a lot longer,” Blaine admitted. 

Kurt stood up straight, his breath still shallow. “So could I.”

Blaine wet his lips and chuckled shyly. “How presumptuous of me would it be if I asked you to come home with me because I’m not ready to let you go home?”

Kurt laughed and came close to Blaine. “Pretty presumptuous. But I’m not exactly ready to let you go either.”

“I live four blocks that direction,” Blaine gulped, gesturing towards the far end of the park. “And I have plenty of coffee.”

“By all means, lead the way,” Kurt replied. 

Together they headed towards Blaine’s apartment and as the reached the edge of the park, Kurt smiled as he felt Blaine thread their gloved fingers together.


End file.
